Uber account setup: data use, marketing and advertising choices
This captured iOS flow moves from account creation and pre-filled contact details to terms, a location explainer, marketing enrollment, a “Customising your experience” state and advertising-personalisation consent. It provides multiple sign-up routes, editable fields, policy links, a marketing-settings route and separate Decline, Manage preferences and Allow controls for advertising.
The central design question is informed choice, not whether the flow feels trustworthy. Proceeding with a phone number includes consent to automated communications, marketing is presented as already enabled, location collection is described as running from app open until a trip ends, and the advertising screen frames consent as “better ads” while the filled Allow button has the strongest visual weight. The screenshots cannot establish reduced resistance, cognitive load, safety, trust or conversion.
- Captured
- Capture date not recorded
- 7
- Screens
- 3
- Ingredients
- 6
- Applications
Common contexts
Business goals
What works
What the captured flow does well.
- Phone, Apple, Google, email and account-recovery routes are available on the first screen.
- Imported name and phone details are shown in editable fields before the next step.
- The terms screen links directly to the Terms of Use and Privacy Notice and requires a separate agreement checkbox.
- The location explainer states a collection window, gives examples of intended use and links to more information.
- Marketing preferences are linked from the enrollment screen.
- The advertising screen names 42 partners, lists data and processing purposes and provides Decline, Manage preferences and Allow actions.
What could improve
What deserves closer review.
- Continuing with a phone number also consents to automated calls or messages from Uber and affiliates, bundling communications with account creation.
- The terms screen asks the person to confirm they have reviewed full documents without a concise summary, version or effective date.
- The location explanation does not separate what is required for a trip from optional background, safety, analytics or marketing use, or show the upcoming system permission choices.
- Marketing is framed as an already completed state—“You’re all set to receive”—with change deferred to settings rather than offered as a fresh opt-in.
- “Customising your experience” does not say which data is being used, what will change or whether the step can be skipped.
- The ad screen provides controls, but “better ads”, the placement of Decline and the high-emphasis Allow button do not give all routes equivalent presentation.
Screen-by-screen breakdown
Follow the journey.
Each annotation distinguishes what is visible from our interpretation or hypothesis, then identifies a practical opportunity to investigate.
Screen 01
Sign up screen
“Get started with Uber” frames account creation as a beginning rather than describing the full sequence. The screen also bundles automated calls or messages into proceeding; it does not show that the wording reduced resistance.
Separate account-critical verification from optional or promotional calls and messages. Explain each communication purpose and provide granular choices rather than adding motivational benefit copy.
Screen 02
Confirm user details
Name and phone values are pre-filled while remaining editable. These values function as defaults if Next saves them unchanged; the screenshot does not show acceptance, correction or error rates.
Keep imported values visible and editable, identify their source and ask for confirmation before saving. Do not treat pre-filling as proof of reduced friction; check correction and error rates.
Screen 03
Terms and conditions
Add a concise summary of material terms, version and effective date while keeping the full documents directly available. Required cost, rights, data and cancellation information should not be hidden behind optional disclosure.
Screen 04
Location explainer
Separate trip-critical location use from optional background, safety, analytics or marketing purposes. Preview the exact system choices, collection timing and how to change access later.
Screen 05
Preferences intro
“You’re all set to receive” presents marketing enrollment as a completed state and describes offers and recommendations before directing changes to settings. The screenshot does not show whether the wording changes consent or later opt-out.
Replace the completed-state marketing message with a fresh, unticked choice. Offer channel and service controls here, explain frequency and keep refusal as easy as enrollment.
Screen 06
Welcome screen
The overlay labels background activity as “Customising your experience”. This frames the process as a user benefit but does not identify the data used, the resulting change or how people interpret it.
Say what data is being used, what will change and how long the step will take. Provide skip or review controls where possible; more positive wording would not resolve the missing information.
Screen 07
Ad personalisation
Decline is a small light button beside explanatory text, Manage preferences spans the width lower down and Allow is the final filled dark button. This is an observable choice-architecture asymmetry, not a preselected default or proof that people opted in without deliberation.
“Get better ads with personalisation” frames the proposed processing through an advertised benefit; the same screen also names data categories, 42 partners and a possible consequence of declining. No effect on consent or ad quality is shown.
Give Decline, Manage preferences and Allow comparable hierarchy and order, separate purposes that do not require one bundled decision and make later withdrawal as easy as consent.
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